Name? Novak Djokovic
Westphalian identity? Serbian
Age? 34
Why is he in the news? The Novak Djokovic, Serbia’s national pride, vs Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison saga continues. Today, Morrison’s Immigration Minister revoked Djokovic’s visa a second time after a court overruled the government’s first attempt to deport the tennis player over a vaccine-exemption disagreement last Tuesday. The government reasoned that this is “what is in the public’s interest to do” and thus, defended its strict Covid-19 travel restrictions.
Why do we care? Because it is absolutely hilarious that this is still going on and everyone knows it, including Australians. We are still waiting to hear rumours that Morrison asks the AUKUS agreement (or the French for that sake) for military support in his struggle against Djokovic …
Why should you care? Djokovic was detained in the same hotel as about 30 people who sought safety in Australia are languishing, indefinitely, under the country’s immigration policies. They are bound by the same Migration Act that temporarily detained Djokovic but have been stuck there for 8 years and not 8 days. Maybe this saga will help them as well? We can hope but since it’s already been 8 years, you should care 2/10.
Who else cares? Everybody’s favourite Brexit disciple Nigel Farage. He called Australia a Banana Republic over this incident and defined Morrison’s move as an “exercise of arbitrary power of a nasty, authoritarian state.” While we agree that Morrison’s actions aren’t helping any democracy and that he is doing it out of personal interests, we do have to wonder what Farage was thinking when he Tweeted this.
Any further comments? We are very excited to continue writing about this topic as soon as it turns into a trilogy on Sunday when a court will rule on Morrison vs Djokovic 2. That said, this will definitely be the last Daily about the case as the Australian Open starts on Monday, with or without Djokovic.
